Wednesday, 15 February 2012

You're either for us or for child pornographers!

Defending a sweeping new bill that would allow the police to monitor on-line accounts of virtually anyone in Canada without a warrant, Public Safety Minister Vic Tows responded to a question from a Liberal Member of Parliament, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the law will give the tools to police to adequately deal with 21st-century technology, and said anyone opposing the laws favours "the rights of child pornographers and organized crime ahead of the rights of law-abiding citizens."The egregiousness of his response typifies the ruling Conservative party's contempt for the Canadian citizenry. This same party, commonly known as the Harper government (after its leader Stephen Harper), also blew almost a billion dollars turning Toronto into a police state during the last meeting of the G20, brutalizing and jailing more than 1000 protesters, but ultimately charging only a handful.Sadly, we Canadians have only ourselves to blame. Collectively, we voted the Conservatives into power, and despite their behaviour we did not turf them out. Instead, the Liberal party and the Bloc Quebecois imploded. The only good aspect of this is the rise of the New Democratic party to the status of the Official Opposition. Sadly, Jack Layton's triumph was followed all too soon by his untimely death. His popularity was so large all across the country that even the Harper government was forced to acknowledge it, and gave him a state funeral, I believe for the first time in history (normally, state funerals are reserved for Prime Ministers and members of the cabinet).Not surprisingly, those who side with child pornographers and organized crime include the Canadian Civil Liberties Union, Canada's Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, several notable law professors, and members of the Liberal, NDP and Green parties. As for the rest of the population, we shall see.

Well, perhaps there is still some fight left in our population. Just one day after a huge outcry against the draconian measures proposed in this bill, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is already backpedaling: yesterday he told parliamentarians that the government would "entertain amendments" to the bill."We will send this legislation directly to committee for a full and wide-ranging examination of the best way to do what is right for our children."What amendments the Conservatives will entertain remain to be seen. It is interesting that when the bill was introduced, the targets were child pornographers and organized crime, but the back-pedaling made no mention of the latter. Perhaps even Mr. Toews sensed that "to do what is right for our organized criminals" wouldn't have played well in the press.